STATEN ISLAND, NY HOTEL BUSINESS. has learned that The Nicotra Group, a New York City-based real estate development company, which is developing an $18 million, 150-room Hilton Garden Inn here, is looking to add another hotel at the corporate office park site.
According to John Caltabiano, vp/hotel division, Nicotra Group and vp/general manager for the Hilton Garden Inn, principals Lois and Richard Nicotra are planning a Hampton Inn & Suites which will address the other end of the spectrum of the market on Staten Island.
Caltabiano expects that project to break ground within three years. That could be accelerated if the response to the Hilton is what we think it s going to be, he said.
The Hilton Garden Inn is slated to open August/September at 1100 South Ave.
We hardly have a building up and we ve booked over $1 million in banquet business well into 2003, said Caltabiano.
Both hotels will be surrounded by 1.5 million square feet of corporate office space that will house such businesses as American Express, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and the Staten Island Economic Development Corp., among others. The site is within 20 minutes of Newark International Airport. (2/28/01) Stefani C. O Connor